Richard III Act 1

Please post ideas, thoughts, etc. for Act 1 here.

It might be helpful to note that in Shakespeare's version of history as told in his plays, Richard III, well established as a villain in his earlier incarnation as Duke of Gloucester, murders Henry VI at the end of 3 Henry VI. The murder is verified in Act V of Richard III by Henry VI's ghost. I understand that this is historically dubious, but we're talking about Shakespeare here.

In real history, Henry VI was succeeded first by Edward IV then technically by Edward V, though Edward was never crowned. He was sent to the Tower of London along with his brother, Richard, by Richard III who had usurped the crown. Those were the two kids who were disappeared from the Tower in 1483.

In the opening scene of Act I of Richard III, it is said that "The King is sickly, weak and melancholy, / And his physicians fear him mightily," clearly referring to Edward IV, though the play doesn't specifically identify him. That establishes the timeframe of the beginning of Richard III.

I need to finish one other book and I will begin Richard III hopefully by the end of this week.

Starting Richard III this day!

Act 1 Scene 1 Begins with Richard III decrying his own ugliness. I was picturing a grossly deformed individual.
So I went to look for what medical historians (yes, there are such creatures!) believe was Richard's physical problem and I found this: https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=178757 Basically, Richard's deformity was not that severe. It would not have impeded him from doing most things, if anything. They do mention that his shoulders were probably uneven, but nothing that a tailor or armor maker would not be able to work around. Very interesting!
I think Shakespeare makes it bother Richard III because it might give a look into his psyche?

>5 Tess_W: Or the psyche the Tudors really needed him to possess. :)

PS: I don’t think that we need spoiler tags in these threads…

>5 Tess_W:

I remember reading somewhere or other (long time ago so can't remember where) that Richard was known in his time as a very skilled swordsman; so he couldn't have had anything at all severe.

>6 AnnieMod: Agreed!

>5 Tess_W: How do you set up a spoiler tag? That's cool!

>9 Podras.:

<spoiler>Text goes here</spoiler> produces Text goes here

>10 AnnieMod: Thanks.

Have completed Act I. Glad that I can now finally understand the famous line "Now is the winter of our discontent."

Richard's machination against his brother has been executed.

Was just a trifle bored with the venomous exchange between Richard and Anne; but I can see the handwriting on the wall.